taxing the irs
In the news today comes the story that the IRS had paid up to $30 million last year to people claiming a non existent credit for slavery repararations.

Although it has caught most of those claims for tax credit, IRS officials have paid out millions of dollars, Rossotti said. A published report put the figure at $30 million. One IRS employee is under investigation for allegedly helping process returns that claimed the credit, government sources confirmed Friday night. Four current and eight former IRS employees also have applied for the credit, government sources acknowledged.

It was unclear Friday whether those IRS employees--largely low-level workers--were aware that their claims were fraudulent, or whether they also were taken in by a burgeoning cadre of promoters who have recently stepped up efforts to market the idea that African Americans can take tax credits for the value of "40 acres and a mule," a Civil War-era reparation proposal that was vetoed by President Andrew Johnson.

This is a mess, and a shame. There are probably a good number of people who were somehow scammed into filing for the fictitious credit. Chances are a number of them have already spent the money from last year's refunds. Now, they are going to be asked to pay it back to the government.